A importância dos frutos na dieta de calitriquídeos e seu potencial como dispersores de sementes

Abstract

Callitrichids are small New World primates, and constitute the largest family of this region. Despite the wealth of species, little is known about diet and potential seed dispersal for many of these primates. The seed dispersal ensures the reproductive success of many species of flowering plants that depend on zoochory for dispersing their seeds. So it is an important ecological service for maintenance or regeneration of forests, rich in resources often also used by man. The objective of this study is to evaluate the current state of knowledge about diet and seed dispersal by callitrichids primates and a case study of Callithrix jacchus in the Tijuca National Park, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, a fragment urban Atlantic Forest where this primate is considered exotic invader. For this, searches were conducted by scientific articles describing the callitrichids diet available in the ISI database Web of Science (http://www.webofknowledge.com), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), and SciELO Electronic Library (http://www.scielo.org) for the development of a literature review. As for the study of Callithrix jacchus, the items consumed were recorded by focal observing their groups beyond collecting your stool. We observed that we know the diet to only about one third of these primates, and seed dispersal for only one-tenth. Are omnivorous animals, but primarily consume fruits, except for Callimico goeldii that primarily consume fungi, and Cebuella pygmaea consuming primarily gum. In fruit scarcity of times these primates use the resources that are available in greater abundance and with similar nutritional rewards. Present dispersion syndrome similar to other primates of the New and Old World, with the fruit consumption of all sizes, yellow, and fleshy. The few studies on seed dispersal point the group's potential in this role, since swallowed most seeds and transported over long distances mother plant. It should be favored by the size of the seed since the discarded are significantly larger than swallowed germinated when tested. In the study with Callithrix jacchus that the proportion of consumed fruits was higher than that observed in other studies with the species C. jacchus and C. penicillata in their natural habitats. Despite the high proportion of fruits among the food items consumed throughout the year, we observed no significant difference in the consumption of those between the dry and rainy seasons. Previous studies in this same area showed great availability of fruits throughout the year, which may explain the behavior exhibited by these primates. As noted for the other marmosets, consumed mostly fleshy theft and swallowed more than half of the seed species, which are significantly lower than those discarded.The knowledge already rated yet points to the potential importance of marmosets for conservation and maintenance of forests where they live, even where they are exotic.